


The Normal Life

by aroceu



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Family, Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-09
Updated: 2012-08-09
Packaged: 2017-11-11 18:36:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/481603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroceu/pseuds/aroceu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A muggle family gets a house elf.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Normal Life

Nathan opened the front door and stared.

"... Muuuuum?"

"Yes dear, what is it?" Lisa appeared in the doorway.

She stared too.

"Connor!" she shouted, and when her husband didn't respond from upstairs, she shouted again, "CONNOR!"

"What?" said Connor, coming out from the bathroom with shaving cream on his face and a razor in one hand.

When Nathan and Lisa moved apart to let him see, he dropped the razor.

*

"So... you're saying that you're a servant," said Nathan to the thing.

The thing nodded. "Yes sirs! Is a house elf! My name is Soody!"

"You're funny-looking," said Nathan, poking it.

The thing called Soody flinched a little and looked at Nathan. "I is not sure that is a compliment, young master," he said to Nathan.

"Mum! The thing called me master!" Nathan said to his mum.

"Yes dear, that's wonderful." Lisa was still staring at Soody with utter bewilderment. "But what are you doing here, um, Soody?"

"Is here to serve you!" replied Soody. "As is said before! Is only to help with cooking, cleaning, getting, preparing, dusting--"

"Do you know how to work a vacuum?" Connor interrupted. Connor was the one who usually vacuumed around the house because he was the strongest, and he hated it.

Soody looked confused for a moment, but said, "Is can learn if need to!"

"Great," said Connor, leaning back in his chair. "I say we should keep him."

"Me too!" said Nathan, giggling and poking Soody again. Soody looked unbothered this time.

Lisa bit her lip.

"Isn't slavery illegal in England though?" she said, looking at her husband.

"Oh no my mistress, I is not a slave!" said Soody. "I is _want_ to help! Is can think of no other joy in the world than working around masters' house!"

"See Lisa? He wants to," said Connor, looking at Soody fondly.

Lisa still looked hesitant, but said, "Okay."

*

Nathan woke up to the sound of a loud _CRACK!_ , and jolted up in bed.

To see the thing standing at the foot of his bed.

"Ahhh!" he said, and then remembered what had happened the day before. "Soody! What're you doing here?"

"Mistress is wanting you to wake up now!" said Soody in his high-pitched voice. "Mistress is says that breakfast is ready!"

"Breakfast--what?" Nathan rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Can't you just--bring it up here for me?"

"Okay, young master!" Soody bowed deeply and then disappeared with another _CRACK!_

Nathan nearly jumped in his bed again, and told himself to get used to it. Nine years old was too young to start getting heart attacks.

He was in the middle of changing out of his pajamas when Soody appeared again. Nathan jumped and landed headfirst into his laundry basket.

"Mistress says that you must come downstairs to eat! Young master is not being allowed to eat in his room," said Soody.

Nathan huffed. He should've seen this coming. "Fine," he grumbled, and then muttered under his breath, "tell my mum to shove a stick up her arse."

The house elf disappeared, and reappeared to say,

"Mistress says that she'll be washing your mouth out after breakfast."

*

"Soody!" called Connor from the living room. "Get me the morning paper!"

"And the mail!" Lisa called from the kitchen.

There were two loud _CRACK!_ s around the house, and then Soody appeared with a newspaper for Connor.

"Say," said Connor as he took it, "we're not supposed to pay you, are we?"

"No sir!" said Soody, suddenly looking horrified. "I is not wanting pay at all! House elves does their work for free, it is their duty!"

"Oh," said Connor, unrolling his paper. "That's good then." He started thinking of the different ways he could spend his extra money, now that he didn't need to pay to get his lawn cleaned up anymore.

*

Lisa bustled around her kitchen, preparing lunch for the day. Soody appeared and said to his mistress, "Is you needing help?"

"No, no, it's fine." Lisa laughed lightly and sprinkled a little salt into the stew.

Soody watched her.

"House elves' job is to cook, mistress!" he said. "You is not needing to when I is can do for you!"

"It's fine," said Lisa, shaking her head and pulling out cobs of corn too.

Soody fidgeted in his spot. "Is you wanting me to clean the house then, mistress?" he said. He'd been cleaning the basement for the past several days (when he wasn't busy tending to the family) without being asked, because he'd seen that it hadn't been worked upon for a few years now. He was almost done.

"No, that's fine too," said Lisa, waving him off.

Soody ran over to her and tugged on her apron. Lisa looked at him questioningly.

"Mistress, I is having the job of to work! You is not needing to do any of this!" He gestured around the kitchen.

"And I is being more than willing to clean the house, mistress!" he added.

"Soody!" Nathan hollered from his room, suddenly. "Can you find me my iPod? I can't find it!" 

Soody was gone and back within twenty seconds. Lisa heard her son call down, "Thanks!"

"You really are willing to do anything for us, aren't you?" she said, looking down at Soody.

Soody nodded.

"Well fine." Lisa sighed. "I suppose you can help me with lunch and setting up the table. After that, you can clean our bedrooms."

"Yes mistress!" said Soody, looking positively delighted, and then started making dessert immediately.

*

"You're really obey everything we ask you to do, don't you?" said Connor as Soody handed him the mail.

Soody nodded enthusiastically. "Anything, master!" he said.

Connor was uncomfortable at being called 'master', and shifted on his seat slightly. "Where do you come from, anyways?" he asked, curious.

Soody opened his mouth. Connor thought he was about to answer, but then Soody's body let out an uncontrollable spasm and he seized up and fell on the floor.

"Soody!" said Connor, alarmed. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Is okay master, just can't..." Soody picked himself up. His eyes were wild, and darted around and then he grabbed the first thing he saw--a fire poker.

"Soody!" said Connor as Soody started jabbing himself with the fire poker. Little red welts appeared all over his body. "Soody! What are you doing?"

"Is sorry master! I is having to punish myself because--" Soody struggled to poke himself again, but Connor had his hand on the poker, not letting him punish himself again. "--because I is not obeying master's orders?"

"What orders?" said Connor.

"Master is asking where I is coming from, but I is cannot say!" cried Soody. "Tis against--tis against the house elf rule!" 

Connor thought he might've been lying then, for the way Soody's eyes went wild again. But he didn't care.

"You don't have to do that!" said Connor, finally wrenching the poker out of Soody's grasp. Soody was panting for breath. "Punish yourself, I mean. But--are you able to tell me why you can't answer my question?"

Soody looked fearful then, and Connor said gently, "Just say yes or no."

"No." Soody shook his head, looking apologetic.

Connor was disappointed at being more confused than ever; but he supposed it was all right, since Soody wasn't hurting himself again. "It's okay," he said, patting Soody on the head.

*

"How do you do that?" asked Nathan as Soody popped around his room, rearranging and putting things away.

"Do what?" said Soody, popping on his bed next to him to grab his shirt. In the next millisecond, he was at Nathan's shirt drawer.

"That--teleportation thingy," said Nathan. "Do you have special powers? Are you magical?"

Soody stiffened, but merely continued appearing and reappearing. "Is young master giving a command?" he asked.

Nathan opened his mouth, and then remembered what his father had told him and his mother a few evenings ago. _Don't make questions an order. He can choose whether he wants to answer them or not. Let him choose._ Nathan also knew that his father would punish him if he dared disobey him, and was privately glad that he was not a house elf.

"No," said Nathan, and was disappointed when Soody didn't answer his question.

Later that night at dinner, while Soody was upstairs cleaning the bathrooms, Nathan said to his parents, "Do you guys know how Soody does that?"

"Does what, dear?" said Lisa over her plate of green beans.

"His--I don't know! Don't you think he's magical?" said Nathan. "He appears on our doorstep, and--what's a house elf? Have you guys heard of house elves before?"

"I'm sure they're just a species that scientists have recently discovered," said Connor. "Perhaps they've sent one here just to test their legitimacy." The thought had crossed his mind before, that Soody was something magical or something--he certainly wasn't human. But then again, there was no such thing as magic.

"But he can teleport! There's no other animal who can do that!" said Nathan.

"He's not an animal," said Lisa sharply. "He's not a human, but he's not an animal."

"Then what is he?" asked Nathan.

"Mum and I don't know, honey," said Connor, forking up a few shredded potatoes. "But he's helping us, and that's all that's really important."

"Well _I_ think he's magical," Nathan mumbled, but neither of his parents said anything to that.

*

After several weeks, Lisa had gotten used to Soody's enthusiasm for work; as time passed, she started giving Soody more and more chores to do. It was because he wanted to, she told herself; but the less and less she did work around the house, the less and less she _wanted_ to do work around the house.

She also noticed that they had more money to save, but had also become spendthrift. Connor was more lenient with letting Nathan going out to the cinema with his friends and paying for his tickets. They'd spent extra money on Lisa's birthday present this year, and instead of getting her something like a brand new frying pan or a simple dress, they'd gotten her two entire scrapbooking sets. Per Soody's suggestion, apparently (as Nathan had leaked out), because Soody had noticed her previous scrapbooks when he'd been cleaning out their bedroom.

Lisa was grateful, but also felt terribly guilty at the way Soody was doing everything now: cooking all three meals, cleaning every day, locating their lose items, doing things that would take them five minutes to do, like finding the television remote or plugging in their laptop chargers. And though they were making more net money now, their ease with spending money was extremely worrying.

"We've become too lazy," Lisa told her family at their family meeting on Sunday. Soody was polishing up the basement; he'd finished two weeks ago.

"I've noticed that too," Connor sighed. "The only thing I feel like I'm doing anymore is going to work, and I even need to push myself to do that."

Lisa glanced sympathetically to her husband. "Soody's been great," she said, "but I don't think this is working out too well for _us_."

"But he helps me with my homework, Mum!" said Nathan.

"You should be doing your homework by yourself, hon," said Lisa sternly.

Nathan slouched in his seat. "Aw."

"He's simply been doing too much work," said Lisa. "Perhaps we should give him a break?"

"We can't. That'd be like torture to him. You've seen how much he enjoys doing the work," said Connor.

"Well if he likes doing it so much, then maybe we should let him!" said Nathan.

"But dear, we should do work too," said Lisa. "We can't make him do everything for us. Then we'll grow up to expect someone else to do the work for us."

"You and Dad are already grown up," said Nathan, crossing his arms.

"Then you will, sweetie." Lisa patted her son on the shoulder. "It simply isn't healthy for us."

"What should we do then?" asked Connor.

Lisa heaved a sigh.

"I suppose," she said, "we must let him go."

*

"We're terribly sorry about this," said Lisa. "We really are. We really appreciated everyth--"

"It's all right, mistress!" said Soody, his suitcase in one hand. "I is glad that I has been pleasing you until now!"

"You've _always_ pleased us, Soody," said Connor, squatting down and patting Soody on the head like he was his son.

"You've been so good to us," said Lisa. "I don't know why we need to see you go, but--" She took out a tissue and blew her nose. "It's for the best."

"We'll miss you," said Connor.

Nathan didn't say anything, just opened his arms and gave Soody a hug. Soody looked surprised, but patted his young master on the back.

"Oh don't cry, mistress!" said Soody when Nathan had finally let go. Lisa had turned away to hide her red eyes, but blowing her nose noisily gave her away enough. "I is sure this is not the end!"

"You are?" said Connor. "When will you see us again?"

Soody shook his head. "I is not knowing! But I is not liking good-byes." He smiled a little, then. Connor thought that Soody's eyes were watery, a little.

"Good luck," he said as Soody retreated from their front porch. "And take care."

He stood up again, put an arm around his wife, and the three of them watched Soody go. Then Connor closed the front door and they started cleaning and working again.

If they'd stayed there a little longer, they would've seen Soody go across the street to an old, bearded man with long spangled robes, and the two of them disappear together into thin air. Almost like magic.

**Author's Note:**

> There's actually no background story to this. Yet. So I can't answer any questions if you have any, lol.


End file.
